Praise for Data Model Resource Books

The Data Model Resource Book, Volume 3, 2009

"Len and Paul look beneath the superficial issues of data modeling and have produced a work that is a must for every serious designer and manager of an IT project."

Bill Inmon
World-renowned expert, speaker, and author on data warehousing, and is widely recognized as the "father of data warehousing."

“The Data Model Resource Book, Volume 3: Universal Patterns for Data Modeling is a great source for reusable patterns you can use to save a tremendous amount of time, effort and cost on any data modeling effort. Len Silverston and Paul Agnew have provided an indispensable reference of very high quality patterns for the most foundational types of data model structures. This book represents a revolutionary leap in moving the data modeling profession forward.”

Ron Powell
Co-founder and Editorial Director of the Business Intelligence Network

“After we model a Customer, Product, or Order, there is still more about each of these that remains to be captured, such as roles they play, classifications in which they belong, or states in which they change. The Data Model Resource Book, Volume 3: Universal Patterns for Data Modeling clearly illustrates these common structures. Len Silverston and Paul Agnew have created a valuable addition to our field, allowing us to improve the consistency and quality of our models by leveraging the many common structures within this text.”

Steve Hoberman
Best-Selling Author of Data Modeling Made Simple

“The large national health insurance company I work at has actively used these data patterns and the UDM, ahead of this book, through Len Silverston's UDM Jump Start engagement. The patterns have found their way into the core of our Enterprise Information Model, our data warehouse designs, and progressively into key business function databases. We are getting to reuse the patterns across projects and reaping benefits in understanding, flexibility, and time-to-market. Thanks so much!”

David Chasteen
Enterprise Information Architect

“‘Flexible solutions are built on stable architecture’ is one of my favorite slogans.
Reusing proven data modeling design patterns means exactly that. Data models become stable, but very flexible to accommodate changes. Data modeling design patterns have helped us to focus on the essential business issues because we can leverage reusable building blocks for many of the standard design problems. Design patterns have also helped us to evaluate the quality of data models for their intended purpose. Many times there are a lot of improvements required. Too often the very specialized business oriented data model is also implemented physically. This may have significant drawbacks to flexibility. I'm looking forward to increasing the data modeling design pattern competence within Nokia with the help of this book.”

Teemu Mattelmaki
Chief Information Architect, Nokia

“Once again, Len Silverston, this time together with Paul Agnew, has made a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge about data models, and the act of building sound data models. As a professional data modeler, and teacher of data modeling for almost three decades, I have always been aware that I had developed some familiar mental ‘patterns’ which I acquired very early in my data modeling experience. When teaching data modeling, we use relatively simple workshops, but they are carefully designed so the students will see and acquire a lot of these basic ‘patterns’—templates that they will recognize and can use to interpret different subject matter into data model form quickly and easily. I've always used these patterns in the course of facilitating data modeling sessions; I was able to recognize ‘Ah, this is just like...,’ and quickly apply a pattern that I'd seen before. But, in all this time, I've never sat down and clearly categorized and documented what each of these ‘patterns’ actually was in such a way that they could be easily and clearly communicated to others; Len and Paul have done exactly that. As in the other Data Model Resource Books, the thinking and writing is extraordinarily clear and understandable. I personally would have been very proud to have authored this book, and I sincerely applaud Len and Paul for another great contribution to the art and science of data modeling. It will be of great value to any data modeler.”

William G. Smith
President, William G. Smith & Associates

“Len Silverston and Paul Agnew’s book on Universal Patterns for Data Modeling is essential reading for anyone undertaking commercial data modeling. With this latest volume that compiles and insightfully describes fundamental, universal data patterns, The Data Model Resource Book series represents the most important contribution to the data modeling discipline in the last decade”

"Volume 3 of this trilogy is a most welcome addition to Len Silverston's two previous books in this area. Guidance has existed for some time for those who desire to use pattern-based analysis to jump-start their data modeling efforts. Guidance exists for those who want to use generalized and industry-specific data constructs to leverage their efforts. What has been missing is guidance to those of us needing guidance to complete the roughly one-third of data models that are not generalized or industry-specific. This is where the magic of individual organizational strategies must manifest itself, and Len and Paul have done so clearly and articulately in a manner that complements the first two volumes of The Data Model Resource Book. By adding this book to Volumes 1 and 2 you will be gaining access to some of the most integrated data modeling guidance available on the planet."

The Data Model Resource Book, Volumes 1 & 2

“The Data Model Resource Book, Revised Edition, Volume 1 is the best book I’ve seen on data architecture. It does not merely address the top levels of a data architecture (Zachman Framework row one or two); it provides both common and industry-specific logical models as well as data designs that may be customized to meet your requirements. The end result is a is a rich framework whose models span the higher and lower levels of a data architecture, including high-level models, logical models, warehouse designs, star schemas, and SQL scripts. You can use the data models, designs, and scripts as templates or starting points for your own modeling, an introduction to subject areas you might not be familiar with, a reference to validate your existing models, and a help to building an enterprise data architecture. The book provides techniques to transform models from one level to another, as well as tips and techniques for getting the appropriate levels of abstraction in the models. Instance tables (sample data) help bring the models to life. I have customized and used the models from the first edition on many projects in the last two years-it is an invaluable resource to me.”

Van Scott
President, Sonata Consulting, Inc.

“Len Silverston has produced an enormously useful two-volume compendium of generic (but not too generic) data models for an extensive set of typical enterprise subject areas, and for various industries that any data modeler will likely encounter at some point in his or her career. The material is clearly written, well organized, and goes below the obvious to some of the more perverse and difficult information requirements in an enterprise. This is an invaluable resource for doing one's homework before diving into any modeling session; if you can't find it here, there is certainly a very similar template that you can use for just about any situation with which you might be faced.”

William G. Smith
President, William G. Smith & Associates

“In today’s fast-paced e-oriented world, it is no longer acceptable to bury business constraints in hard-to-change data structures. Data architects must comprehend complex requirements and recast them into data architecture with vision for unforeseen futures. Len’s models provide an outstanding starting point for novice and advanced data architects for delivering flexible data models. These models position an organization for the business rule age. Their proper implementation and customization allows the organization to externalize and manage business policies and rules so that the business can proactively change itself. In this way, the data architecture, based on Len’s models and procedures for customizing them, becomes by design the foundation for business change.”

Barbara von Halle
Founder, Knowledge Partners, Inc.

“These books are long overdue and a must for any company implementing universal data models. They contain practical insights and templates for implementing universal data models and can help all enterprises regardless of their level of experience. Most books address the needs for data models but give little in the way of practical advice. These books fill in that void and should be utilized by all enterprises.”

Ron Powell
Publisher, DM Review

“Businesses across the world are demanding quality systems that are built faster by IT shops. This book provides a foundation of patterns for data modelers to expand upon and can cut days, if not weeks, off a project schedule. I have found The Data Model Resource Book, Revised Edition, Volume 1 valuable as a resource for my modeling efforts at L.L. Bean, Inc. and feel it is an essential component in any modelers toolkit.”

Susan T. Oliver
Enterprise Data Architect, L.L. Bean, Inc.

“I was first introduced to The Data Model Resource Book three years ago when I was hired by a firm who wanted an enterprise data model. This company did not believe the dictum that ‘all companies are basically the same;’ they felt they were somehow unique. After a little analysis with Len Silverston's help, we found that we were actually quite a bit the same: we had customers, accounts, employees, benefits, and all the things you'd find in any corporation. All we had to do was adapt the product component of Len's book and we were ready to move ahead with a great framework for all of our data. A CD-ROM that accompanies the book provided scripts to build the model in Oracle very quickly. We then began mapping all of our detailed data types to the enterprise model and, voila, we could find a place for all of those various spellings and misspellings of Account Number. Volume 2 of this revised edition provided even more exciting features: models of industry-specific data. I began to see interesting patterns that permeated this volume. For example, a reservation is a reservation, whether you're an airline, a restaurant, or a hotel. (We even have something similar in the oil industry--the allocation.) Another concept from the book that has changed my thinking and vocabulary is the word ‘party.’ I recently managed a project in which an employee could also function as a customer and as an on-line computer user. The team was in disagreement regarding a name for this entity; but after checking The Data Model Resource Book, we realized that here we had a party playing three roles. Whether your job is to jump-start a data warehouse project or borrow ideas for any subject area in your next operational database, I highly recommend The Data Model Resource Books, Revised Edition, Volume 1 and 2 as your bible for design.”

Ted Kowalski
Data architect, Equilon Corporation

AMAZON.COM COMMENTS

A reader from Denver, Colorado Fantastic Resource for Launching Business Data Models
"The most difficult part of creating a business data model is recognizing and correctly identifying the entities of the business and the true relationships that connect them. Do this part wrong, and the rest of your design and programming effort will suffer immensely. Get it right, and the rest will come easy. This book gives you a tremendous jump start on the modeling task. Rather than trying to describe how to do it, this book works through the actual development of many of the most commonly encountered business data models. Not only are business entities identified and classified, but the complex relationships that most information systems need to address are modeled clearly and concisely.

Whether you use the templates as presented or just use them as a basis in your own modeling efforts, you should find this book a great resource. I wish something like this had been available years ago."

A reader from Overland Park, Kansas
Great generic data models "I have been looking for a book like this for years. It is a great book. I would describe it as a "Pattern-Oriented Data Modeling" book. The authors do not provide "how-to" guide lines. They provide generic data models.

The book includes real-world examples like work orders, invoices, an so on (not the classic car-wheels or house-rooms examples that you never find in real life).

There are several great logical data models. Physical models are data warehouse oriented though (this is the star left in my rating). I would rather like to see both (data warehouse and non-data warehouse) physical models."

A reader from Englewood, Colorado Valuable addition to any designer's library
"Reusing only one of the data models in this book saved me hours of effort. The book is well organized for quick access to the relevant models. A great resource for kick starting a data modeling or application development effort."

scottv1@airmail.net from USA "Excellent resource of data models and physical designs
The Resource Book is one of the more useful books I have seen on data architecture. It is just what it says: an (excellent) resource library for seven logical data models, one warehouse design, and two data mart designs. These data models and designs can be used as templates or starting points for your own modeling, an introduction to subject areas you might not be familiar with, validating your existing models, and a help to building a corporate data model. The logical models tend to be very complete. You probably won't need all their features, but they provide a good reference.

The book provides a good notation for showing the relationship among high-level models, mid-level models, and data warehouse and data mart designs. Instance tables (sample data) help bring the models to life. The book also provides a good methodology for transforming logical data models to data warehouse designs. The book is an extremely useful resource."

A reader from Aurora Colorado An excellent data model reference book.
"I found this book to be well written and a reflection of a vast amount of data modeling experience. The book provides insight into a number of very good data modeling techniques and provides enough detail to enable substantial productivity benefits over developing a data model from scratch. I see this book as an excellent reference for anyone needing to develop a data model as a part of any system development activity, including data warehousing. I agree however with the other reviewers of this book that star schema design is a critical component of most data warehousing solutions and that if your developing a data mart solution that Ralph Kimball's "Data Warehouse Toolkit" is an excellent book to buy as well."

kevinmcniff@home.com from Orange County, California, USA Excellent for Starting Design or Checking Existing Designs
"I've been designing data models for some time (15 years..Yikes!) I picked up this book to test my model for products in relation to producing a bill of materals. In addition to enhancing that area of my design, I adopted their organization/person/relationship design. If you are designing, or thinking of designing, OLTP databases you need this book. If you don't understand this book, study hard!!!"